No Quarters Required

The spirit of the arcade is not something easily replicated.

The golden age of the video arcade peaked in 1981, then quickly vanished from towns and cities everywhere. In its wake, it left quarter-hungry cabinets in bars, bowling alleys, boardwalks, and restaurants. As the years progressed, basements, barns, dumps, and warehouses would become their final resting places. Rows of dark screens, gutted cabinets, and faded memories of echoing laser blaster fire were the only testament to the meteoric rise and fall of early video gaming.

Today, you can still find this near-extinct species in the wild. The commercial concept of the modern arcade bar has become very popular in recent years, as is the random pinball machine in the corner of your friendly neighborhood dive bar. It’s rare, however, to play these games in an environment that transports you back in time to experience them during their heyday. But that's exactly what we create at NEON.

NEON's video arcade is comprised of authentic maintained and restored original cabinets, all running the same hardware they ran in 1981--or in 1994, since we adore both eras of the arcade boom (for those of you who enjoy your Street Fighter II as much as your Centipede). In 2018, attendees got to enjoy usually unseen classic rarities like Darius, RipOff, and Red Baron--who knows what 2020 will bring?

Best of all? Keep those quarters in your pocket. Everything is on free play.

Interested in bringing your working arcade game or pinball machine to the show for others to enjoy? We offer comped tickets to those who help make the NEON arcade even larger. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

It also might be worth keeping an eye out for the mysterious Helios Corporation logo as NEON 2020 details emerge for further backstory on the world you'll find yourself in this August.

"Rows of dark screens, gutted cabinets, and faded memories of echoing laser blaster fire were the only testament to the meteoric rise and fall of early video gaming."